HELP In partnership with Apple, Oprah Winfrey is unveiling the newest selection for Oprah’s Book Club, “Caste: The Origins of Our Discontents,” by Isabel Wilkerson... Publisher Penguin Random House calls “Caste: The Origins of Our Discontents” a masterful portrait of the unspoken caste system that has shaped America. Through an immersive, deeply researched narrative and stories about real people, Wilkerson explores how America has been defined by a rigid hierarchy of human rankings throughout its history and even today. “This might be the most important book I’ve ever chosen for my book club,” said Oprah Winfrey. “‘Caste: The Origins of Our Discontents’ provides a new way of seeing racial inequality, giving rise to countless aha moments and helping us truly understand America as it is now and how we hope it will be.” “I am honored and thrilled that ‘Caste’ has been chosen for Oprah’s Book Club and that its humanitarian insights will now reach a wider audience,” said Isabel Wilkerson. “This work shows that the term racism may be insufficient in our current era. We need new language, a new framework for understanding our divisions and how we got to where we are. ‘Caste’ gives us this language. ‘Caste’ allows us to see ourselves through a different lens and the chance to work toward healing from the wounds of artificial hierarchy. We must first see it to begin to resolve it.”... About “Caste: The Origins of Our Discontents” (Penguin Random House) Drawing parallels between the caste systems of America, India, and Nazi Germany, Wilkerson outlines a revolutionary framework for understanding how caste plays out across civilizations, both historically and today. Backed by years of research, she identifies eight ideological pillars that underlie all caste systems. Using riveting stories from the lives of Martin Luther King Jr., baseball's Satchel Paige, an ordinary single father and his toddler son, and many others, Wilkerson shows how the insidious undertow of caste is experienced by each of us every day. She documents how the Nazis studied the racial systems in America to plan their debasement of the Jews; she discusses why the cruel logic of caste requires that there be a bottom rung for those in the middle to measure themselves against; she writes about the surprising health costs of caste, in depression and life expectancy, and the effects of this hierarchy on our culture and politics. Finally, she points forward to ways America can move beyond the artificial and destructive separations of human divisions, toward hope in our common humanity. 1. What is a question you might ask about the text when coming up with an idea for an analytical essay on this excerpt (example of things to think about: what struck you or confused you, or if you noticed any patterns or contradictions or ironies)? Remember: you are asking an analytical question, not a factual one. Examples of good and bad sentences are below. Bad question: What characters are present in Frozen? Good question: While singing the song "Let It Go," Elsa creates a beautiful ice palace on top of a mountain, but, her sister, Anna, mostly ignores this and the new comfort her sister has found, pleading with her to leave this behind. Why would Anna do this?